Hanger assemblies are commonly used for supporting lighting or fan fixtures from drop ceilings. One such hanger assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,514 issued to Kerr, Jr. The hanger assembly of Kerr, Jr. includes a first and second elongated and a bracket of an inverted U-shape configuration. The bracket includes a bottom wall with a transverse recess for receiving the first elongated bar and spaced apart flanges upstanding from the bottom wall for receiving the second elongated bar. Bolts through the bottom wall of the bracket secure the bracket to an electrical box and also sandwich the first bar between the transverse recess and the box. Another bolt extends transversely through the flanges and can be tightened to draw together the flanges and secure the second bar between the two flanges. Foot mounts are attached to both ends of the first bar and one end of the second bar for resting on the rails of a lattice framework for a drop ceiling.
The Kerr Jr. hanger assembly suffers from several disadvantages. First, two bars must be used for supporting a fixture. For adjusting to the desired position on the lattice framework, both the first and second bars must be loosened and manipulated, including the loosening and tightening of two sets of bolts. Second, the electrical box is difficult to level as a result of the use of circular bars, a semicircular recess for accepting the first bar, the second bar being held between two parallel flanges, and foot mounts simply pressed onto the ends of the bars. Any loosening of the central bolts could easily cause the electrical box to twist around one or both of the circular bars thereby throwing the electrical box out of a level orientation. A further disadvantage is that the load bolts for supporting the fixture are held by the electrical box, therefore causing all the static load of the suspended fixture to bear directly on the electrical box.
Another disadvantage of the Kerr, Jr. hanger assembly and other prior art hanger assemblies is the lack of a mechanism for quickly leveling the electrical box for either uniform thickness ceiling tiles or those having a stepped edge.